With development of the mobile communications network, the mobile communications system gradually evolves to be broadband-based, flattened, and Internet Protocol (IP)-based, which provides better conditions for effective transmission of data and video services and improvement of application experience of a user. In the prior art, to reduce waste of bandwidth of a core network and an air interface, a video is transmitted in a HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) stream manner. In the HTTP stream manner, an encoding manner of video content is adjusted according to a status of a channel. If the channel is in a relatively good condition, video content at a relatively high data rate is transmitted; and if the channel is in a relatively poor condition, video content at a relatively low data rate is transmitted.
In a process of transmitting a video in an HTTP stream manner, when terminals of different users access same video content, a video server needs to separately send the same video content to the terminals of the different users. The transmitted video content repeatedly occupies the bandwidth of the core network, and an effect of reducing waste of the bandwidth of the core network is not obvious.